15 April 2020

Indian defence exports reach record high in 2019–20

by Jon Grevatt

New data from the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) shows that the country registered record-high defence export approvals worth INR86.2 billion (USD1.1 billion) in fiscal year (FY) 2019–20, which concluded at the end of March.

The figure – published in an online ‘dashboard’ published by the MoD’s Department of Defence Production (DDP) – represents a five-fold increase over the value of export approvals secured by the MoD just a few years ago.

The growth in Indian defence exports is attributed mainly to the private sector and Indian companies such as Tata, which co-operates with Lockheed Martin on producing structures for the US corporation’s C-130J aircraft (pictured). (Jane’s/Patrick Allen)

The dashboard, which was updated with the new figures on 14 April, shows that the value of defence export approvals in FY 2019–20 was a year-on-year increase of 4%, compared with the INR83.2 billion recorded in FY 2018–19, which represented a 78% increase over the INR46.8 billion in approvals registered in FY 2017–18. The value of export approvals in FY 2016–17 was INR15.2 billion.

Statistics published on the dashboard also show that the vast majority of defence export approvals have been secured by India’s private sector. They also show that the private sector’s growth in exports has increased strongly in recent years.

In FY 2019–20, India’s private sector was attributed with 93% of defence export approvals in terms of value, with the remainder secured by state-owned defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs). In FY 2018–19, the private sector secured 89% of all export approvals. In FY 2017–18 and FY 2016–17 the private sector was attributed with 68% and 13% respectively.

New data from the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) shows that the country registered record-high def...

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